Overplaying and Fresh Chops

[CJceltics33]

I keep hearing that a trumpet player should always practice on fresh chops, rest often, and to stop when the lips just begin to become fatigued. But I also hear that many professionals in high school/college used to “beat themselves up” in the practice room, spending 3, 4, 5 hours practicing each day regardless of fatigue.

I am a sophomore in high school, and I struggle with endurance. I’m trying to improve it to get through the Hummel that I have to perform in February. For the past few months, I’ve followed the approach to practice in sessions and get adequate rest in between each session and exercise. However, my endurance still isn’t where I’d like it to be, and largely is day be day to how long I can play.

I now wonder which is the better approach for a player as young as I am. Practice as much as possible (still with rest) to ensure development in necessary fundamentals? Or practice merely as much as the lips can handle? Because honestly, I can’t get much practice in if I want to stay fresh throughout, although it could be due to over practice the previous day...

Thank you for your input!

[homecookin]

Developing and maintaining endurance is an issue that
all trumpet players deal with no matter what their level of
development.
It is not wise to continue to practice when you have reached
the point of diminishing returns as far as your embouchure is
concerned. Breath control also plays an important part of
developing endurance.These are issues that take
time to develop properly.
You want to always strive to practice with the best
tone possible.
You have to learn to judge for yourself
when you need to rest.
It is important to listen to yourself when
you practice and play.
Are you hearing improvement in your playing ?
Are you able to play longer phrases and
sections of the Hummel ?
Most of all, do not be discouraged.
Sometimes we reach plateaus in our
development as players.
If you do not have a private teacher,
then you should definitely find one
and begin to take lessons if you are
serious about the trumpet.
We all have good days and bad days
on the trumpet.
Sometimes after a very heavy day
of playing and practicing
it is good to take a day
off of the horn to refresh the chops.
Once again, do not get discouraged,
and the best of luck to you on your
contest performance of the Hummel.

[Billy B]

Your age is irrelevant. The key to being able to handle hours of practice without wrecking yourself is to be able to maintain focus and concentration. If you are playing correctly and have the maturity to stay focused there is no reason why you shouldn't to be able to maintain a 4-5 hour daily practice routine.
_________________
Bill Bergren

[brassmusician]

I wouldn't have thougt you would need to practise 3 or 4 hours a day to develop the endurance to play the Hummel. I would think an hour a day of the right material would be enough. Having said that, you might be struggling because you find the higher register parts hard? Could pay to get a few lessons with a good private teacher to set you up with a good daily routine. Also sometimes a big part of endurance can depend on the efficiency of your embouchure. Exercises like the Stamp warmups (mouthpiece buzzing and pedals), Clarke, lips bends, harmonic slurs etc, would be what I would recommend ( a good dose of these will take less than an hour) but I really think a good teacher hearing you in person, showing you how to do these well is the best way to go.

[dstdenis]

For me, the best approach to prepare for a difficult performance is between the two extremes you described: I’ll work harder than just stopping at the first sign of fatigue, but I won’t beat myself up either. I think there’s an optimal amount of work somewhere in between those extremes for you also. However, it’s quite common for ambitious players to overdo it and tear down their fitness with too much work, so that’s the greater risk that experienced trumpeters will warn you about.

Anyway, this piece shouldn’t be about endurance. The greater challenge is to play it with style, clarity, poise and accuracy. If you’re smart about working on those aspects, the familiarity and ease you gain should take care of endurance. If it’s still too far out of reach, then maybe this piece isn’t a good choice at your current stage of development. Without observing your practice, I don’t know if that’s the case, but it’s something you should consider and discuss with a good teacher.
_________________
Bb Yamaha Xeno 8335IIS
Cornet Getzen Custom 3850S
Flugelhorn Courtois 155R
Piccolo Stomvi

[JVL]

hello,
there is, in your issue, two points : the long term, and your short term performance (in one month).

Anyway, like you're still a student, you should practice keeping always a good execution quality level (and a high one while practicing certain fundamentals). In your case (and also in professionals cases), coordination is very very important.
Develop your endurance on this base, and all those repetitions keeping a very good coordination (so on relative permanent fresh chops) will give you stamina, strength etc.

Last, everything is better built if breathing (in and out) is efficient, and your embouchure is efficient too. You'll improve better and faster with these two parameters being correct.
best

[theoldmaz]

Does anyone know and care to share Michael Sachs' warm down routine that he so religiously uses after rehearsals and performances?

[omelet]

1 mvmt or 3?

Also, is it that you're getting tired and can't make it all the way through, or tired after a long period of practicing sections comfortably with breaks? Trying to see if it is endurance (lower muscle effort over long periods) or strength (high muscle effort over short periods) that is involved.

[Brad361]

[Tpt_Guy]

http://www.jayfriedman.net/articles/six_months_in_chicago

In this article, Chris Martin outlines a routine for increasing endurance. A very worthwhile read.

Jay Friedman has many brilliant articles with much that is of benefit to all brass players, and some of the articles are specific to trumpet. I recommend reading through as much of his material as you can and seeing how you can apply it to yourself, if you can.

Here is the index of articles:

www.jayfriedman.net/articles
_________________
-Tom Hall-

"A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence."
-Bruce Lee

[razeontherock]

Some great stuff already here!

I'll just add that as a sophomore in H.S., if somebody had told me one thing, it would've drastically improved my playing:

put the horn down while the chops still feel good.

This is extremely counter-intuitive to me. "No pain no gain," right? Over many decades I eventually discovered this doesn't pertain to the little muscles we use to form an embouchure. I didn't develop anything. Instead, I (sub-consciously) re-invented a new embouchure as my chops got too tired to function the way they should. That's for the birds!

Putting the horn down while the chops still feel good might mean 30 seconds of rest, or 5 minutes, or 20. If you beat up your chops as hard as I did it will take a couple weeks for this approach to begin to really show its merit.

Also, could someone please link Jen's Lindemann's recent thread about his recent recording of this piece? His insights there would really help this young man.

[Al Innella]

The two things that always hurt my endurance, are playing too loud and using too much pressure. You would be surprised how much endurance you can gain, by backing off these two things.

[TKSop]